Ballot drop-off boxes set up in Santa Rosa, Petaluma

Drop-off boxes for voters to deliver their vote-by-mail ballots will be available 24/7 up to Election Day.|

Drop-off boxes for voters to deliver their vote-by-mail ballots opened Monday at the Santa Rosa and Petaluma veterans buildings and will be available 24/7 up to Election Day on June 7.

Nearly 198,000 mail-in ballots have been sent to Sonoma County voters - representing about 79 percent of all registered voters - and the boxes are an experiment aimed at getting more ballots in prior to Election Day, said William Rousseau, county registrar of voters.

Drop-off boxes have proven successful in several California counties and in Colorado, where boxes have been deployed on “a massive scale” for a couple of years, he said.

If the tryout goes well, Rousseau said, the county will establish more drop-off box locations for the 2018 elections.

Vote-by-mail ballots turned in by June 3 can be counted ahead of time and included in the first results posted on election night, he said.

Mail-in ballots may also be returned by mail or in person to a drive-up window at the Registrar of Voters Office, 435 Fiscal Drive, Santa Rosa.

Voters may deliver their ballots to polling places by the 8 p.m. deadline on Election Day, though the time required to verify those ballots typically delays final election results for several weeks.

Ballots returned by mail must be postmarked before or on Election Day.

The Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building is at 1351 Maple St., across from the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, and Petaluma’s veterans hall is at 1094 Petaluma Blvd. S.

People requiring assistance through use of a TDD may call 565-6888 for voter information.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @guykovner.

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